
Gass ^ 

Book 



<M* 




T UK E E 




DISCOURSES, 



rUKACIIED IN 



■lie f»itl #Mi§.eIial §hu% cli 



WEST ROXBUBf, MASS.. 



April 13th, 19th, and 23d, 1865, 



BY THOMAS LAUKIE. 



iJufalis hrb Lin ftequrst. 




DEDHAM, MASS.: 

I'lM.VTKO BY JOH.\ T COX, Jr. 

1 8 6 5 . 




THREE 



DISCOURSES, 



FREACHED IN 



or 



WEST ROXBURY, MASS., 

April 13th, 19th, and 23d, 1865, 
BY THOMAS LAURIE. 



^ublisfjrU ba fcequrst. 



DEDHAM, MASS.: 

PRINTED BY JOHN COX, .Tr. 

18 65. 



EI 4- 5 "I 
. L.3S 



DISCOURSE I. 

Preached on Fast Day, April 13, 1865, and repeated in 

Rev. Mr. Edwards's Church, Dedham, 

in the afternoon. 



Ezra 8, 21 : Then I proclaimed a Fast there at the river of Ahava, that we 
might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, 
and for our little ones, and for all our substance. 

It is written in holy scripture, "Is any afflicted, let him 
pray. Is any merry, let him sing psalms." This is also the 
voice of nature. But sometimes an occasion of great joy is 
only a louder call for prayer, and such were the circum- 
stances referred to in the text. That we may see this more 
clearly, let us go hack a little in the history of Israel. For 
their sins they had heen carried captive to Bab}'lon. This 
captivity lasted seventy years, so that very few of those who 
witnessed its commencement lived to see its close. Toward 
the end of it, Daniel set his face unto the Lord God, to 
seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting and sackcloth 
and ashes, the grace which had been promised to his people. 
Here was one in affliction praying, encouraged by tin 1 
promise of a divine deliverance. And soon the deliverance 
came. Cyrus the Great issued a proclamation declaring that 



the Lord God of Heaven, who had given him the kingdom, 
had charged him to rebuild His Temple in Jerusalem ; so he 
invited all Jews, so disposed, to engage in the good work. 
He also encouraged such as could not go in person to send 
their contributions, and it is a remarkable fact, that in this 
royal edict the King of Persia acknowledged Jehovah, God 
of Israel, to be the God. 

In consequence of this proclamation, a company of nearly 
fifty thousand went up to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, and 
it is interesting to note that out of so large a multitude only 
eight thousand one hundred and thirty-six, or less than one 
in six, were able to ride, though the journey occupied four 
months ; moreover, three out of every four who did ride 
were mounted on asses, the cheapest and smallest of all 
beasts of burden. Yet though so poor, they carried up with 
them offerings to the amount of sixty-one thousand pieces 
of gold, and five thousand pounds of silver — this last worth 
about seventy-five thousand dollars. 

Fourteen years after, a royal order was procured from 
Cambyses to put a stop to the work ; but only three years 
after that, Darius Hystaspes commanded it to go on. He 
restored the sacred vessels plundered by Nebuchadnezzar, 
and appropriated sufficient from the royal tribute to meet 
all expenses. 

Surely in all this Israel had abundant occasion for praise. 
But in addition to this, Ezra, a scribe well instructed in 
the law, and devoted to the religious instruction of his 
people, received a commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus 
to go up to Jerusalem and enquire after the success of the 
enterprise. The king and his nobles contributed largely 



themselves to the object, and besides authorizing whoever 
wished, to return with Ezra, and take with them all the 
contributions they could procure, he donated of the royal 
tribute one hundred talents of silver, equal to ninety thous- 
and dollars, besides abundance of all sorts of provisions for 
those who carried on the work. Then, every man connected 
with the temple, from the high priest down to the humblest 
hewer of wood and drawer of water, was exempted from 
taxation ; and Ezra was enjoined to enforce the law of 
God, in all things without let or hindrance. In consequence 
of such distinguished favor, Ezra took up with him a com- 
pany of fourteen hundred and ninety-six men, with their 
wives and children, making a caravan probably of about 
six thousand persons. These carried with them one hun- 
dred talents and one thousand darics of gold, and seven 
hundred and fifty talents of silver — the silver alone amount- 
ing to six hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. Surely 
here was occasion for most jubilant thanksgiving, yet right 
in the face of so many and so great mercies, we find Ezra 
appointing a Fast, to seek the protection and blessing of 
God on the way. And, my friends, he needed to do this; 
for that great company, including so many defenceless 
women and children, and having with them so much treasure, 
were going to be for four months within reach of the Arabs 
of the desert, who would not fail to know of the grand 
opportunity for plunder. Ordinarily such caravans needed 
a military escort, as travellers through that region do to-day. 
Yet Ezra had spoken to the king so confidently about the 
good hand of the Lord being upon all them that seek Him, 
that he was ashamed to ask the usual band of soldiers and 



6 

horsemen, but turned instead to that King who filled the 
mountain full of chariots and horsemen round about Elisha ; 
and God did not disappoint his servant, but sent his angels 
to encamp round about him all the way, so that neither by 
day nor by night did any evil befall him, or any plague 
come nigh the camp. Thank God that faith is not confined 
to any one age, but shines out upon us from them all ; and 
thank God that it still lives to the praise of Him who works 
in His waiting servants the work of faith with power. 

My hearers, I need not tell you that to-day is a day of 
joy far greater than that ancient joy in Persia, when those 
who carried Israel away captive became the builders and 
guardians of a renovated temple. A rebellion vaster, fiercer 
and more defiant than earth ever saw before, has just re- 
ceived its death blow. A war unparalleled in magnitude, 
whether we look at the size of its armies, or the number and 
bloodiness of its battles ; — a war involving the existence of 
our beloved country ; — a war whose opening scenes made 
the heart faint, and the blood stagnate in the agony of our 
suspense, — such a war has just closed with a series of vic- 
tories, involving such crushing defeats to our foes, that 
whether willing or unwilling, they must lay down the sword. 
"We do not stop to ask how the South receives them. We 
raise no question about the time and manner of the procla- 
mation of peace. Peace, to all intents and purposes, has 
been wrenched from their unwilling hands. The arm that 
refused it has been broken — broken by the mightier power 
of Him who doeth His will in the army of heaven and among 
the inhabitants of the earth. 

On Monday, when the news spread from city to city, and 



7 



from house to house, men m t o beside themselves with 
joy. Words could uot give it utterance ; only the loudest 
music, and the thunder of cannon, could give expression to 
so great gladness. Never before did I get such an idea 
of mere sound as an expression of emotion, and if the mul- 
titudes that thronged the city streets last Monday could 
only have come together, and all joined in one of the grand 
old chorals, we should have hoard such singing as we are 
not likely to hear this side of heaven. We are calmer to- 
day, though not less jubilant. If our praises are less im- 
pulsive, they arc more hearty, for we have had time to think, 
to look at our mercies : and if not to grasp all their great- 
ness, yet to let them sink into our hearts till they are 
running over. 

My friends, we have very great occasion for praise, and 
no doubt we shall soon have an opportunity for its expres- 
sion ; would that when it comes, it might tind us in the 
spirit of him who wrote, '"Praise ye the Lord, for it is good 
to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant, and praise 
is comely." Would that whenever Ave come together for the 
worship of our Divine benefactor, we might have more heart 
to make his praise glorious. But praise is not our only 
work to-day. Even more than that pilgrim band at the 
river of Ahava, we have occasion for prayer as well as praise, 
and to that need let us now direct our thoughts, so that 
pleading, like that multitude by the river of Babylonia, we 
may, like them, prevail. 

Why then, after so great victories, and in the midst of 
such universal joy, should we devote ourselves to the work 
of tasting and prayer? I answer, in brief, because much 



8 



yet remains to be done to secure the benefits of these long 
years of war. The war is virtually ended, but the results 
to be produced by it are not yet secured. We stand in the 
very crisis of destiny. The great questions that have so 
long agitated the nation are now approaching their final 
settlement. They have passed out of the sphere of force 
into that of debate, and not debate only, but political man- 
agement, party strife and sectional prejudice. Till now the 
nation has held its breath, watching the shock of contending 
armies. Now there is danger that men will feel that all is 
safe, and so let traitors secure, by secret cunning, what they 
failed to accomplish by open force ; or at least mar our dear- 
bought gains, and inaugurate the same contest under another 
form, and on different fields of action. The mass so long 
in the furnace is now being withdrawn. To-day it is soft 
and ductile. A child may make an impression on it. To- 
morrow it cools and hardens, perpetuating, it may be, for 
ages and generations, the impress of to-day. When the 
character of a great nation is thus in the balance ; when our 
institutions are taking form afresh, is it a time to give our- 
selves up to impassioned ecstacy ? Is it not a time for fer- 
vent intercession that God will in mercy Himself superintend 
our removal from the furnace ; give the results of these 
protracted trials such a shape, and so stamp His own image 
on us as a people, that He may be glorified in our highest 
prosperity, and that we may not fail one iota of that benefit 
which His grace is able to bestow upon us in this advanced 
stage of the history of Redemption. Is there no danger that 
while good men give themselves up to the intoxication of 
the hour, scheming politicians and worthless demagogues 







may plot unhindered? Shall the golden opportunity, pur- 
chased by the blood of so many brave men, be thus vilely 
cast away? Shall those suffering heroes, now sustained in 
their agonies and mutilations by the sweet thought that each 
pain is purchasing their country's good, wake up to the 
greater agony of seeing the enemy sow tares in the field 
watered by their blood, while those who ought to have 
sowed it with good seed spend the time in thoughtless 
jubilation? 

But you will ask, What* can we do? We are private 
citizens ; we fill no position of influence ; we have no con- 
trol over public affairs. Permit me, in all plainness, to 
answer : This last is not true. You may be private citizens ; 
you may hold no office. But it is just such that the country 
looks to for help in this time of need ; and if we do not 
render it, how can we answer for it to the great cloud of 
Avitnesses who, from so man}' gory beds, are looking on our 
inaction? How can we answer for it to their weeping 
friends, who gave them up to such a death for us ? Do you 
still stand idle, and ask, " What can we do?" There is the 
mercy seat, and to-day Massachusetts calls on you to ap- 
proach it, and intercede for your country. Have you done 
it ? Do you intend yet to do it ? All through the war, our 
rulers and our statesmen have needed our prayers, but never 
more than now, when on them devolves the work of securing 
to posterity the advantages procured at so great a cost. 
Think how one mistake, one well-intentioned blunder, may 
mar the whole. Think how one treacherous Ahithophcl 
may mislead an honest heart, and perpetuate, in new forms, 



10 



the miseries of the past. Think how God, all through the 
war, has guided and sustained our rulers in answer to prayer. 
And shall he find us silent now ? Babylon is not the only 
nation that has perished because her people gave themselves 
up to revelry when they should have been every man at his 
post, alert and vigilant. And if now, when our destiny as a 
nation is taking new form, we be found among those who 
restrain prayer, shall we be guiltless ? 

I have already said, in various forms, that the present is 
a turning point of destiny. Look for a moment at some of 
the things that make it such.* The fate of the leaders of 
this rebellion is now to be decided. They, with others now 
gone to appear before a higher tribunal, have stirred up the 
South to frenzy. They have diligently fed the flame thus 
kindled. They have, by a worse than Parisian reign of 
terror, dragged with them unwilling men, and made the life 
of loyal citizens to hang on co-operation with treason. They 
have instigated all this slaughter. And when the brave men 
who sought to defend our country, fell into their hands, they 
deliberately tortured them to death. The rack and the 
stake were too merciful and too slow for their use. Famine, 
that could slay its thousands at a stroke ; starvation in sight 
of abundance, was the instrument of their careful choice. 
The groaning of the prisoner came into their ears. The 
report of the guns that shot men too weak to stand, because 
they had not power to control the direction of their fall, 
echoed through the council chamber at Richmond, and passed 
beyond into loyal homes, where heart-broken relatives 
thanked God for the stroke which ended the long agony 
and the long suspense, and still that starvation went on. 



11 



These men might have stopped it. One word, one penning 
of a signature had put an end to sueh cruelty ; but the word 
was left unspoken, the pen moved not, and the lingering 
torture went on, up to the last moment they had power to 
inflict it. Shall such men be allowed to attempt, by wiles 
and flattery and fraud, the destruction they failed to effect 
by force ? iSlia.ll they be left to muster their followers at 
the ballot-box as they have done in the battle field ? Shall 
they be permitted to thwart the progress of freedom and 
free institutions, as they have erected ramparts to arrest the 
progress ot our armies ? I know that it is written : Ven- 
geance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord; — but in such 
a connexion let us think not of vengeance but justice. Re- 
member, it is also written, " that the ruler is the minister 
of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth 
evil ;" and as I think of the unscriptural sentimentalism that 
makes rulers, even in New England, bear the sword in vain, 
allowing condemned murderers to go unwhipt of justice — 
making honest men more afraid of evil-doers than evil-doers 
arc of retribution, either in this world or the world to come, 
I tremble when I think what judgments may yet be in store 
for a land where "judgment is so turned away backward, 
and justice standeth afar off." 

My hearers, we need prayer here to guard us en both 
sides. On the one hand, from a passionate and ungodly 
wrath, that so far from being religious, unfits the soul for 
prayer ; and on the other, from an antagonism to the de- 
mands of justice, which is, in essence, antagonism to God. 
In this matter, do we not need specially to pray that God 
will both keep our rulers from being opposed to justice, and 



12 



from seeking the ends of justice from other motives, and 
in an unholy spirit? Do we not need, also, to pray, that 
justice may be honored with just as little suffering as is 
consistent with that end? Who of us would not shrink 
from the difficult questions which our rulers must decide, 
and from the painful duties which they must perform? 
Can we do less than help them by our prayers, and still the 
more as we see the day approaching? 

Then, besides the leaders, there is the whole population 
at the South. What dark masses of perplexity mount the 
sky, with the approach of peace, like clouds driven by the 
storm. How can the guilty be punished, and the inno- 
cent saved from further suffering ? How can prejudice 
be conciliated — prejudice, drank in at a mother's breast, 
taught in the schools, strengthened by social intercourse 
with those trained under like influences, and above all, 
sanctioned by the teachings of the pulpit? No man can 
form any adequate idea of the strength of such prejudice, 
and not feel that God alone can remove it. And what shall 
be our future if it be not removed ? There are those in 
whose minds all the sufferings and bereavements of the 
South in this rebellion will be invested with the halo of 
martyrdom in a holy cause, putting them hopelessly beyond 
the reach of argument. And if we may judge of the effect 
of their persecutions on the patriots of the South, from the 
spirit manifested by one recently chosen to be ruler of the 
State where he suffered so much, we do not see much 
prospect of conciliation or of harmony, and when to this 
antagonism we add the influx of greedy, unprincipled men 
from the free States, intent solely on their own advantage, 



13 



we ask how long will it take the agitated waters to subside ? 
As we think of the extreme severity of military jurisdiction, 
and the laxity of civil authority, — here rebels bearing sway 
as the legal majority, and there army officers, with methods 
of administration learned in war ; — as we think of these 
things, we ask who can make the wrath of man to praise Him 
and restrain the remainder thereof, but God only ? Let Him 
deal with us as we deserve, and He might leave us to be 
bound together in one bitter antagonism that should end 
only in mutual destruction. But in answer to prayer, He 
can make our bitterest enemies gentle as the lamb, and 
cause the whole land to seek those things that consolidate 
peace, because they foster mutual regard, esteem and love. 
Then in every portion of our now distracted land shall each, 
in seeking a brother's welfare, find his own. My hearers, 
God alone can bring this about, and he does this in answer 
to prayer. I might easily enlarge on the complications 
likely to arise among a people made up of defeated rebels, 
lawless robbers, loyal sufferers, and soldiers of a victorious 
army, with citizens from the free States — all brought to- 
gether in closest contact, and each class, with its partisans, 
quick to insult and take offence, and slow to forget an injury. 
But I mean not to paint the picture in full ; I only sketch 
such outlines as may serve to show the urgent need of 
prayer to-day. 

Turn to another class, hitherto kept in the background, 
but now brought, by their God and ours, into unwonted 
prominence. Thank God, they are bondmen no longer, but 
freedinen. But does the Proclamation of Freedom complete 
the work? Nay, verily. The shackles may be stricken off, 



14 



but the scars remain. The vices of slavery need to be 
rooted out. The voluntary separation of husband and wife, 
and the facile formation of a new connection growing out of 
that great crime, is a greater evil than the forcible sundering 
of the relation, and harder to be remedied. Its roots lie 
deeper, and they are stronger. One stroke of the pen can 
put a stop to the one, but only a long and laborious instruc- 
tion can, by the blessing of God, remove the other. The 
sentiments, the practices, the habits of slavery, need all to 
be remodelled. Listless indulgence, unthinking improvi- 
dence must be replaced by habits of steady labor and 
prudent forethought. The jealousy with which the slave 
has hitherto regarded his white master, rendering even well- 
meant counsels and efforts for his comfort of no avail, must 
be replaced by a confidence which shall be given because it 
is felt to be deserved — and confidence is proverbially a plant 
of slow growth. And -how many, think you, of those fore- 
most in denouncing oppression, will have the self-denying, 
patient love that is requisite for this? Alas for those just 
out of the prison-house who fall into the hands of unprin- 
cipled men, who love money more than they love their 
neighbor. In such cases it is not impossible to secure all 
the miseries of slavery without the name. These freedmen 
need sympathy and kindness. They need education ; above 
all, and more than all, they need the gospel. Not a system 
of truth in which man is prominent, of which human good- 
ness is the starting point, and happiness the goal — a system 
according to which Christ is only one teacher among many ; 
but the truth as it is in Jesus, based upon Him and suriimed 
up in Him, as its alpha and omega, its essence and its life — 



15 

the gospel in which God stoops to the sinner in infinite love, 
that through the redemption that is in Christ He may lift 
him up to Heaven. 

This gospel, and this alone, can fit the freedmau for the 
right discharge of his duties ; and there is no other power 
that can transform rebels into loyal citizens. Armies can 
break their power, but grace alone can break their hearts, 
and teach them to look with love both on their former slaves 
— now lifted up to share their own legal standing — and on 
those who, under God, have lifted them up to this equality. 
The whole South must be leavened with the gospel. Its 
educational and religious institutions must be reconstructed, 
not by arbitrary dictation, but by a loving co-operation ; and 
to this end our churches — this church — each one of us who 
hope that we are Christians, need a fresh baptism from on 
high. We need to care not only for our own things, but 
also for the things of our whole land. Henceforth our 
interest, our prayers, and our benefactions must be on the 
broad scale of our country, what they have been for our 
own church. Will the churches come up to this ? Are you, 
my hearers, ready to stand in your lot, and do whatsoever 
your hand findeth to do, as God shall give you ability, till 
these reunited States shall be thoroughly supplied with the 
ordinances of the worship of our God. O blessed invitation 
of our Master ! to return such blessings for their curses and 
the miseries they sought to bring upon us ! God, in his 
providence, calls us to this work — shall it be done? If we 
prove unfaithful, there is a class — not in the cotton-fields of 
South Carolina, but scattered through New England towns, 
and living in our own families — a class no more friendly to 



16 



either our political or religious institutions than the rebels 
at the South, whom God may use to chastise His churches 
as He has used the other to chastise the nation. 

But if we rightly discern the signs of the times ;' if in the 
spirit of our Master we meet the demands of the hour, all 
the deliverance God has wrought for us these four years on 
so many fields of strife ; all the answers He has given to 
prayer for our rulers and our armies ; the great salvation He 
has wrought from that gigantic system of oppression which 
corrupted all it touched, and seemed to defy our prayers ; — 
all these assure us that God will be with us and bless us 
with a still greater blessing. He will subdue rebel hearts 
as well as rebel armies. He will bless the negro in his new 
position, and we shall be that happy people whose God is 
the Lord. 



DISCOURSE II. 

Preached April 19th, the day of the Funeral of 
Abraham Lincoln. 



1 Samuel 3, 18 : It is the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good. 

We are all mourners to-day. At ordinary funerals, we 
see a little bereaved band, and a larger circle of spectators, 
sympathizing, indeed, but not suffering the distress of 
those immediately afflicted. On public occasions like this 
we are accustomed to see much of the pageantry of sorrow, 
but little of the reality. It is not so to-day. Seldom do 
we witness in private bereavements such grief as is called 
forth by this public loss. I was walking out when the news 
came, and from almost every house that I passed weeping- 
ones came out to meet me — not because they expectcd'I could 
comfort them, but because their grief was too great to be 
endured alone. The death of no other President since the 
first could have awakened such emotion. He was our father, 
and Ave were his children. It was not always so. We need 
hardly go back six years to find a time when most of us did 
not even know his name, for by the force of his own sterling 
virtue he worked his way up from obscurity. And when, a 

3 



18 



little more than f6ur years ago, he was called to the helm 
just as the ship of State plunged into the storm, amid 
sunken rocks, and almost within reach of a lee shore, 
we had some misgivings. The crisis demanded a man of 
tried ability, of commanding powers, and he was an obscure 
stranger. We did not know him. His education did not 
command our confidence. He came from a region whose 
manners are yet unpolished, and its institutions immature. 
We had learned to distrust the loud commendation of par- 
tizans in a political campaign. And is it any wonder that 
when the first gun was fired in Charleston harbor, we could 
not rest? Traitors had. control in the capital. They filled 
the national councils. Their plans were mature ; ours 
were yet to be formed — and who was our leader? Wc 
hoped in the God of our fathers, and yet we -feared that we 
had provoked Him to destroy us. So all eyes were fixed 
upon our chief magistrate. One thing we were sure of — 
God had given him to the country ; — but was he to be a 
saviour, or an instrument of the vengeance we deserved? 
That touching request for our prayers, as he turned from 
his western home to the scene of his labors, was the first 
thing that drew him to our hearts, and at the same time 
made hope to triumph over fear. Then that providential 
deliverance from violence on the way, was another token for 
good. Still we were troubled ; but ever the more we knew 
him, the brighter were our hopes. It did not take long to 
satisfy us of his honesty of purpose ; we endorsed the name 
first given him by his western friends. But was he intelli- 
gent ? Would he take broad views of things ? Would he 
look well before he moved? Here, too, we learned to ad- 



19 



mire his child-like candor and transparency. But cautious 
and careful in coining at conclusions, could he stand firm? 
Surrounded by politicians, many of them unscrupulous, 
some of them influential, could the magnet avoid being 
deflected from the pole, amid so many counter attractions? 
Here, too, we learned to love, as well as confide. Now 
and then things occurred to try our faith, but in the end 
they only rooted it the firmer. Each blast that swept 
over it only made it stronger for the next encounter with 
the storm. 

The war lengthened out beyond all our anticipations. But 
still our leader stood firm — firm in his own principles — firm 
in the confidence of loyal men. Then came the time for a 
now election. Would not men grow impatient under un- 
usual burdens? Slanders were rife; and bold, bad men, 
oaring nothing for principles, intent only on the one end of 
putting down the national government, carefully constructed 
a platform most conducive to popular effect. They selected 
their candidate for his availability rather than for his sym- 
pathy with themselves, and moved earth and heaven to 
overthrow him who had already surmounted the most 
difficult portion of the voyage toward a righteous and an 
honorable peace. There was a time when it seemed as 
though the enemy must succeed. It seemed as if the 
masses, deluded by slanders, would certainly turn against 
thoir steadfast deliverer. But not such was the will of God. 
You remember how He strengthened the heart of His faith- 
ful servant, and confounded His enemies by a result as 
gratifying as it was triumphant. 

Thus was our confidence in the leader God had given us 



20 



made stronger, and love kept pace with our confidence. 
More than ever we felt assured that God had called him to 
his position, and qualified him for his work. We loved to 
pray for him, and watch the blessings conferred on him in 
answer to prayer. So we went on ; and though most of us 
had never looked on his honest face, we felt toward him as 
a father. 

When the blow fell — O, how sudden, and how sore ! — we 
could not work ; we could not eat. We scarce knew what 
we did or said ; one crushing weight pressed all hearts into 
the dust. ' We had just begun to feel at home with him ; 
we were just tasting the sweets of unbounded confidence 
and love, when that dastard crime dashed our cup of happi- 
ness on the stones. Now that the war was past, we expected 
to see him enjoy the remainder of his presidential term in 
reaping the harvest ripened under his care. But his work 
is done, and well done ; his race is finished, and we rejoice 
that his character is so universally appreciated as it is 
to-day. 

It is customary, on such an occasion, to sa}*- a word of 
comfort to the bereaved, — but what shall I say? I cannot 
point you to all the reasons for such an event, for I know 
them not any more than you ; but we can together enjoy the 
consoling thought — it is not chance ; it is not accident ; "It 
is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good." But 
I have heard the passionate reply — ' ' What ! such an act 
from God ! and such an agent !" My friend, I appreciate 
your difficulty. I do not wonder that it troubles you. But 
as to the agent : when would God do anything if He waited 
till a sinner became worthy to be the channel of His mercy ? 



21 



Besides, arc there not links in the chain of second causes 
better supplied by villains than by honest men? Would it 
have been as appropriate for the beloved disciple to have 
betrayed his Master, as it was for that traitor who. alter the 
crime, could not find one act in the whole life of Christ to 
mitigate remorse, and so went and hanged himself? Only 
remember that when God uses so base an instrument, He 
does not make it base, nor compel, — no, not even induce — 
it so to act, but only adapts His providence to bring good 
out of the evil wrought. " He makes the wrath of man to 
praise Him," — does not create it — "and restrains ' the re- 
mainder thereof," — not the whole, for a portion is made to 
issue in a louder song of praise from all who witness the 
use which God makes of human wickedness. The same sun 
ripens the wheat and the tares ; the same rain ministers life 
to the garden and malaria to the swamp. The same soil 
produces the rose and the deadly nightshade, and the differ- 
ent result is not owing to the sun, or the rain, or the soil, 
but wholly to the evil nature of the tares, and the swamp, 
and the poisonous plant. We cannot tell why God per- 
mitted sin at first, or why He allowed such a tempter to 
enter Eden. ^Ve only know that where sin abounds, grace 
does much more abound ; and that the visit of Satan to 
destroy, gave occasion to the visit of Christ to save. 

But why enlarge ? Such things are tests of our confidence 
in God ; and however clouds and darkness may for a moment 
hide the sun, the Christian knows that it still shines — that 
there is a perfectly holy motive at the beginning — a pure 
and blameless management all the way, and an issue at the 
end that shall infinitely justify God in all His acts. The 



22 



evil is ours — the beginning, middle and end of it are ours — 
but the greater good which it is made to subserve is all from 
God. " He is not tempted with evil, neither tempteth He 
any man ; but every man is tempted when he is drawn away 
of his own lust and enticed." Yet, at the same time, the 
Prophet can ask, " Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord 
hath not done it?" For while man, in the exercise of moral 
evil, brings physical evil to pass, God determined to make 
that physical evil the occasion of both physical and moral 
good. So while no greater crime was ever committed in 
the universe than the putting to death of our Redeemer, yet 
' ' him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore- 
knowledge of God, [men] have taken, and by wicked hands 
have crucified and slain." Yea, "of a truth, against Thy 
holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and 
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, 
were gathered together for to do whatsoever Thy hand and 
Thy counsel determined before to be done," but without any 
sinful agency of God on their minds inclining them so to 
act. Then do we not see clearly why we should adopt the 
language of the text, concerning this cowardly murder of our 
beloved chief magistrate, in humble and holy, aye, joy- 
giving faith ? 

For even if the course of events to-day, and for a long- 
time to come, should give no ray of light ; though so far as 
tendencies and manifest results of Providence were con- 
cerned, we should be left in darkness, yet the character 
of God is so perfect that we cannot do otherwise than give 
ourselves up confidingly to His sovereign disposal. If while 
our loved President was living, we could trust him even 



23 



when we did not know how he would act, how much more 
shall wc trust God when we see how He has acted, even 
though we do not as yet see the good that shall most cer- 
tainly come out of it. Just as in the storm, when the ship 
groans beneath us, the storm howls above us, and the waves 
threaten to sweep over us, we are comforted by the sight of 
a tried pilot at the helm ; so here wc can look all possible 
evil in the face and sing, " As for God, His way is perfect; 
a just God, without iniquity, just and right is He ;" "There- 
fore will we not fear, though the earth be removed and the 
mountains be cast into the midst of the sea." 

Bat God has not shut us up to such darkness. A> 
though He knew us too well to trust us in such entire 
absence of all sensible comfort, He has not left Himself 
without witness in this time of national calamity. For He 
lias been with us all through the war, and led us by a way 
which we knew not, which nevertheless was the best and 
most beneficent way to victory. So that we may boldly 
say, "The Lord is our Helper, we will not fear what man 
can do unto us ;" " Because Thou hast been our Hell), there- 
fore in the shadow of Thy wings will we rejoice." God has 
not led us all through this war to such a commanding posi- 
tion only to destroy us now. He has not answered so many 
prayers only to forsake us to-day. But this is one of the 
all things that shall work together for our good — yea, lift as 
up to a serencr height of blessing. ^\Ve have been accus- 
tomed to regard the rebel inhumanity to prisoners as one of 
the darkest clouds in the whole horizon ; but look round 
you : sec how that inhumanity is opening the eyes of men 
at home and abroad to the true character of this rebellion. 



24 



See how it consolidates the loyalty of the loyal States, 
and calls forth the condemnation of Europe and the world ; 
making men whom nothing else could have induced to do 
so, to abhor the rebellion with an unmitigated and unchange- 
able abhorrence ; and do you not see that not one iota of 
those lingering agonies of thousands of brave men has been 
endured in vain ? And what if this last and. foulest crime 
clenches the nail thus driven home? What if it makes 
popular sentiment — proverbially fickle — as inflexible as the 
orbits of the stars ? What if it secure a condemnation of 
this whole rebellion as lasting as the race ? 

But there is another view of this matter no less encour- 
aging. It is not in my heart to breathe one syllable in 
disparagement of the departed. I know it is the opinion of 
many that the heart now forever at rest Avas too tender for 
the stern work of punishing evil-doers. But I am not so 
sure of that. Never yet has he been found wanting either 
in appreciating the duties of the hour, or in meeting its 
demands. The great trouble has been in the popular feel- 
ing, that if the rebellion could only be put down, it was 
expedient to be generous, and forget the past. The idea 
has been that it would be magnanimous to forgive, and let 
traitors go unwhipt of justice. Magnanimous indeed ! Is 
it magnanimity to efface the brand of infamy from treason ? 
Methinks it has not produced such pleasant fruit these last 
four years as to merit a better standing than before. Is it 
magnanimous to approve the effort of traitors to destroy our 
country — an effort held back from success only by the life- 
blood of thousands of her bravest sons ? If this be magna- 
nimity, may God keep you and me from so great a crime. 



25 



Look around you on the multitude of the slain, from Gal- 
veston to Gettysburg, and from Yorktown to our Western 
territories — sec them in the narrow beds, where they were 
laid tenderly by patriot hands, or piled rudely in shallow 
trenches, where traitors tossed them in with insult and 
reviling; and as your eye takes in the countless multitude, 
tell me, " Who slew all these?" Go through the now silent 
prison-houses — pardon the word — not houses, but living 
graves, scooped out with their tin cups, for which, alas ! 
they had little other use — where, in the storms of winter, 
naked, starving patriots sought in vain for shelter, and when 
you have repeopled them with the shivering shadows that 
once were men, but now the lifeless victims of rebellion, 
again I ask, Who slew all these? and how? And is it 
magnanimity to say to the next generation of traitors, '" Go 
on. Do the same thing over again. You will never be 
called to account for it. Succeed better than these if you 
can, and if you can't, you will not suffer?" For one, my 
hearers, I do not so understand either duty or justice. It is 
one of the attributes of our God that He will by no means 
acquit the wicked. It is said in His praise, " Also unto 
Thee, O Lord ! belongeth mercy, for Thou renderest to 
every man according to his works." , 

I said that public sentiment stood in the way of our 
departed President, and hindered his performance of duty 
here ; but his death has transformed that public sentiment. 
In murdering him, rebels removed the last barrier that stood 
between them and retribution. They struck down their 
kindest benefactor. They turned a latitudinarian public 
sentiment that cared nothing for justice, provided it enjoyed 



26 



present prosperity, into a stern demand for righteousness. 
The great danger now is that the righteous demand for 
justice shall degenerate into a ferocious cry for vengeance, 
and so err as far on one side as it has done on the other. 

It is a significant fact that at this moment Providence has 
called to the chair, so sadly vacated, a man who thus ex- 
presses his views and purposes : " I am in favor of lenity, 
but in my opinion evil-doers ought to be punished." "Trea- 
son stands highest in the catalogue of crimes." " The halter 
to intelligent, influential traitors ; but to the honest man, 
deluded into the rebel ranks, I would show mercy." Later, 
" Let it be engraven on every heart, that treason is a crime, 
and traitors shall suffer its penalty." 

Take it, my hearers, as a mark of Divine favor, that in a 
day like this, He calls a man to be the President of our 
country who advances sentiments like these. Let us 
cherish revenge towards no man ; but if blood must be shed, 
it is better that it should be that of the evil-doer ; better 
that traitors should suffer, as a warning to those who may 
be hereafter tempted to tread in their steps, than that 
the loyal families of our land should be devoted to another 
decimation. A wiser, holier, and more loving heart than 
yours or mine has said, "It must needs be that offences 
come, but woe unto that man by whom they come ;" let us 
be content to echo the words of Jesus : ' ' Woe to the 
offender, rather than to those who do not offend." God 
punishes because he is holy and benevolent, and he requires 
rulers to do the same, as his ministers, because that course 
is holy and benevolent — a terror to evil-doers, and a praise 
to them that do well. You and I cannot be wiser or more 



27 

l)cnevoleut than God. He calls us to no spirit of vengeance, 
but to such a reverent regard for right as shall make us 
willing to maintain it in His appointed way. 

Four years ago we did not dare to hope that God would 
be. acknowledged in our land as He is to-day; that our 
coins would bear the inscription, " In God we trust;" that 
our rulers would implore the prayers of Christians ; that our 
victories would be ascribed to God. But see what hath 
God wrought. Yet one thing was lacking — a reverent re- 
gard to justice. The current of public sentiment ran strong 
in the opposite direction. It seemed as if the whole people 
would be content with victory, and utter no solemn testi- 
mony against treason. The very proposition would have 
been hooted down as bigoted fanaticism. But by one touch 
what a change ! ' Surely if Abraham Lincoln looks down 
to-day on the change his death has wrought, he feels that 
he has accomplished something by his death as well as by 
his life. Let us give to his successor the confidence and 
love that we gave to him, and seek to turn the rushing 
stream out of the channel of blind revenge into that of holy, 
loving loyalty to God and right. 



DISCOURSE III. 

Preached on the Sabbath after the Assassination. 



Gen. v, 5 : And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty 
years, and he died. 

Man was formed of the dust of the ground, and so was 
named Adam : i. e., red earth. Was it not intended that 
thus his name should be a constant memento of the word, 
"Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return"? It may 
seem inconsistent with this that he should live through the 
long period of nine hundred and thirty years. Think of it, 
not far from ten centuries — nearly one-sixth of the whole 
period from his creation till this moment. He lived to see 
his posterity of the eighth generation. Lamech, the father 
of Noah, was fifty-six years old when Adam, his first parent, 
died. It was a long life indeed, and yet were not the words 
of David true even then, that its strength was labor and 
-sorrow. Think of those nine hundred and thirty years, 
commenced in Eden, but spent and ended in a world cursed 
through his transgression. There must have been something 
very sad in that curse, for even Lamech said of his little 
babe, "This child shall comfort us concerning our work 



29 



and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the 
Lord hath cursed." "VVc can almost hear the sigh of the 
old man as he unburdened his grief and sorrow, in the dim 
hope of relief ; and if the sin and suffering of earth seemed 
so grievous to him, who had never seen anything else, what 
must it have been to Adam, who could contrast it with the 
glories of Paradise, and primeval holiness? Then our first 
parent had witnessed all the wrong and violence with which 
earth was tilled, from the blood of righteous Abel down to 
the crimes that, in his old age, were fast ripening a world 
for the Flood. Surely his nine hundred and thirty years, 
spent in looking on the ruin which his sin had wrought, are 
not to be envied. It almost seems like one of the wondrous 
retributions of Providence in this life that he " who brought 
death into the world, and all our woe," was detained here 
so long, ere he could go to that world where nothing entereth 
that detileth, and wherein dwelleth righteousness. But even 
after so long a life, Adam died ; and though Jared and 
Methuselah both lived longer than he, yet of them, also, 
the short biography closes with the same record: "and he 
died." 

It might not be profitable to dwell on the life and death 
of our first parent. For we know so little of the incidents 
that filled up those nine hundred and thirty years, that we 
can only imagine what they were. But we need not go so 
far away. These emblems of mourning point us to a recent' 
bereavement. We find it difficult to-day to keep our minds 
away from our great loss, and so while on Wednesday we 
gave ourselves up to meditation on the fact as citizens, to- 
day let us look at it as those to whom it is appointed once 



30 



to die, and after death, the judgment. Yes, we shall follow 
after him — every one of us in his time — and of us it shall be 
true, as it now is true of him, that we shall not return. 

The death of our beloved President, then, admonishes us 
that exalted station is no shield from death. Men some- 
times have the feeling that while ordinary mortals die, those 
lifted up to responsible positions have a firmer hold on life ; 
that Providence owes it to such to give them a longer lease 
of earth ; that as so much more depends on •them, so they 
should have a longer time in which to form their plans and 
carry them out. But if any of us have indulged such 
thoughts for a moment, how are we rebuked to-day ! God 
is no respector of persons. Both high and low, rich and 
poor together — the ruler and his people — must go whenever 
God shall call them, and go, too, at the moment, without 
delay. And if it was so with him on whom rested so much 
of responsibility and such great interests, much more is it 
true of us. As with a trumpet voice this Providence says 
to you and me, " Prepare to meet thy God." 

There is another feeling somewhat akin to this, which 
leads us to expect that a man zealously engaged in a good 
work will be allowed to finish it ; that if it involve the wel- 
fare of millions of his fellowmen, and he prosecutes it with 
rare discretion or unusual success, God will not suffer him 
to be interrupted, but will ward off danger till the under- 
taking be complete. But does our recent bereavement 
endorse such views ? Does it tell us that if we would secure 
long life, we must diligently engage in some work indis- 
pensable to human wellbeing, and so secure safety till the 
work be carried through ? Nay, my hearers ; but it tells us 



31 



that however important may be the work in hand, and how- 
ever successfully we may prosecute it, only the present 
moment is ours. The next, God may give or withhold as He 
pleases. He is so rich in His own resources that He does 
not need our services. And He has so many instruments at 
His control that He can take the unfinished work from one 
and confide it to another, as He pleases. And if it be so 
with the strong ones, who use their strength so profitably, 
how is it with* us ? Does not this Providence say to you 
and me, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy might, for there is no work nor device nor knowledge 
ner wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." 

After these things, I noed not speak of that very common 
but far less reasonable feeling, that when, after passing 
through much tribulation, our feet are on the verge of quiet 
enjoyment, God will surely suffer us to live to see it ; or 
that when, through much toil and suffering, we have earned 
the love of our fellowmen, God will spare us to enjoy that 
love. Look on yon casket, containing all that is left of the 
man whom the nation delighted to honor — the man of our 
affections, and in whom our hearts did safely trust, — and 
read what it saith concerning such hopes. After long and 
patient toil we may say to our souls: "Soul! thou hast 
much good laid up for many years ; take thine ease." But 
another may say : "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be 
required of thee." 

So, too, me may have said, Life is indeed uncertain, but 
God will give me some warning ere he takes it away. He 
may not allow me to finish the undertaking in which I am 
engaged, but He will let me know when He would have me 



32 



stop — at least He will give me time enough to attend to the 
one thing needful before probation ends. My hearers, it is 
written of one, " I gave her space to repent, and she re- 
pented not." God is now giving us the same, and of how 
many may the recording angel write this moment, " not 
repented ?" 

But let this Providence speak — " The Lord said unto 
Moses, get thee up into this Mount Abarim, and see the 
land which I have given unto the children *of Israel, and 
when thou hast seen it, thou shalt be gathered unto thy 
people." But did He give any such warning to our beloved 
President ? Was there any hint such as was given to good 
king Hezekiah, when the Lord said unto him — " Set thy 
house in order?" We speak of sudden death. But think 
of never knowing that we are in danger, — never being con- 
scious of a stroke or a pain, till the soul recovers conscious- 
ness in the presence of its Judge. Has such a Providence 
no voice to you and me, and every soul in this great nation? 
Oh, that it might be heeded ! Oh, that along with the 
universal grief might be a heart to hear the voice of Him 
who says, " Be ye therefore ready also, for in such an nom- 
as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." 

And here I am constrained to turn aside a moment to 
another lesson of this great national sorrow : From whatever 
side we view it, we are appalled by its magnitude. Like 
some lofty peak that rises so far above the rest of the 
mountain ranije that it seems to stand alone, so does this 
bereavement overtop all similar distresses ; but among all 
its other aggravations, we cannot forget the scene where it 
occurred. Fain would our affection have chosen some other 



33 



place for the closing scene of such a life. That agonized 
cry of his bereaved companion, as dawn revealed its dim 
outlines, " Oh, that dreadful house ! that dreadful house !" 
still rings in our ears. It is a relief to know that our 
beloved President went with reluctance to the fatal spot. 
Even if Ave did not know that he went from regard to the 
feelings of others, yet in such a matter Love would hope all 
things, and think no evil. But we are startled to see the 
blow struck in fcuch a place, by one whose whole character 
was molded by its influences. And Avhat a revelation of 
those influences does that character present ! Not only 
reason distorted, and heart perverted, but conscience so 
seared as to glory in his shame. How could he commit so 
amazing a crime in so theatrical a way ! That one word 
" theatrical " explains it all. No other could express such 
commingled wickedness and insensibility. That stupendous 
crime was the fitting fruit of an education that, passing by 
the ordinary manifestations of depravity as too commonplace, 
brings the soul into contact, and holds it in communion, 
with all that is most intensely exciting in human crime. 
An education that, making the heart familiar with the foulest 
and most bloody deeds, bends the whole energy not to be 
good, but to put on its seeming. It has nothing to do with 
goodness, save to ape its attitudes and steal its words. It 
teaches a man to pass by genuine piety as beneath regard, 
and heaps its praises on the clever counterfeit of its most 
impassioned manifestations. At the same moment vice is 
equally applauded, if the expression of its most violent out- 
breaks be only vivid and intense. In that case, the greater 
the verisimilitude the louder the applause. What education 



34 



could be better contrived to obliterate moral distinctions 
than that which subsidizes both crime and virtue as means of 
amusement? Oh, if that assassin, instead of being thus 
trained to counterfeit and win applause by the perfection 
of the counterfeiting, had learned of Him who teaches to 
make the tree good, that the fruit may be good also — not 
to hang painted fruit amid painted leaves — would he ever 
have committed so foul a crime ? If he had sat at His feet 
who bids us keep the heart with all diligence, because out 
of it are the issues of life ; to cultivate those inward graces, 
whose praise is not of men but of God — the nation might 
have been spared the tears it weeps to-day. 

Through such a crime, in such a place, b} r such a hand, 
God points us to those words of Jesus : " By their fruits ye 
shall know them ;" and bids us decide which we shall choose 
for our children — the education of the theatre or of the 
church : of the book of plays, or the book of God. On 
this side, are clever counterfeits of vice and virtue for 
amusement, thrilling scenes that move to tears, and ex- 
haust, in selfish excitements, the sensibility God meant 
should prompt us to noble deeds. On that, is a daily taking 
up the cross, a steady conflict with evil, that makes meet 
for an inheritance among the saints in light. Here is the 
training for adultery, treason and murder. There is the 
training to be like Christ, and be with Him where He is. 

Some may fear that the death of so good a man in such a 
place may draw multitudes within its gates. But the fact 
that it trained his assassin for that deed of blood; that 
it blinded him to its damning infamy so as to glory in 
shame, from which a good conscience would have shrunk 



back appalled, ought to produce the opposite effect. — 
Whether it will or no depends on the character of each 
spectator of the crime. But its testimony concerning the 
influence of the theatre is one which no good man will fail 
to regard ; and in this matter, as a parent soweth, so shall 
not only himself but his children reap. 

We speak of being prepared for sudden death. It has 
become a stereotyped phrase, " so to live every day as if it 
were our last ;" but have we a definite idea of what such a 
life involves? It is not a few hasty prayers sandwiched 
between a life of ungodliness and our appearance before the 
Judge. It is not a flood of tears shed over a life up to that 
moment spent in deliberate disobedience. Nor is it a regu- 
lar round of Pharisaic devotion that leaves us where it found 
us — prayer preceding, following, and enclosing round about, 
unvarying sinfulness. But it is the discharge of daily duties 
as so much service owed to God. It is whether we eat or 
drink, or whatever we do, doing all to the glory of God. 
Is the merchant who indulges through the day in what are 
so pertly called " the tricks of trade," but which are in fact 
so many sins against God and our neighbor — is he ready at 
night to hear Christ knock and open unto him immediately ? 
Is the man who to-day curtly refuses the claims of missions, 
or stops his ears to the cry of so many millions of freedmen 
for the gospel, ready to give in his account to-night to Him 
who knows each expenditure for luxury, and each new 
investment? How easy it is to steel the heart to God's 
commands in the daily life, and then in His house harden 
the same heart against His truth, so as to go forth and 
reneAv the disobedience of Saturday on Monday morning. 



36 



It is easy to do this ; but that is not laying up treasure in 
Heaven. 

On this point the life of our martyred President speaks as 
loudly as his death. Says one who knew him intimately 
ever since he entered on the duties of the office he per- 
formed so well, and here I condense somewhat the testimony 
of his pastor, Rev. Dr. Gurley : 

" He deserved the confidence and love of the nation by 
the whole tenor and spirit of his life. Always and every- 
where he endeavored to be right and to do right. His 
integrity was thorough and incorruptible, all pervading and 
all controlling. It was the same in great things and in 
small, in every place and in every relation. When he 
assumed the presidency he saw his duty as the leader of a 
great and imperilled people, and determined to do the 
whole of it, leaning on the arm of Him who " giveth power 
to the faint, and to them that have no might increaseth 
strength," we admired his child-like simplicity, his perfect 
freedom from guile, his forgiving temper, his persistent 
devotion to every duty of his high position, his readiness to 
hear the cause of the poor and the oppressed, his charity 
toward those who questioned the correctness of his course ; 
his large philanthropy, that knew no distinction of race, but 
looked on all men as brethren ; his unswerving purpose that 
what freedom had gained should not be lost, and that the 
end of war should be the end of slavery. All these things 
commanded our admiration ; but holier and more lovely 
than all of these was his abiding confidence in God, and in 
final triumph, through Him and for His sake. This was 
the secret alike of his strength and his success, and by this 



37 



more than by any other excellence, he being dead, yet 
speaketh." 

So did President Lincoln perform the duties of each day ; 
and so through trust in the atoning blood of Jesus was he 
prepared to die. God grant that while we seek to be found 
in Christ, not having our own righteousness, but that which 
is through the faith of Christ, we do not forget those words 
of our Great Example, " I have glorified Thee on the earth. 
I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." For 
in like manner God has given a work to every one of us. 
He has not given the same to all, but to each one his own 
work, for which he and not another is responsible. There 
is one work to the man of property, and another to the man 
of mind, and to no individual in the two classes is there 
precisely the same. There is one to the leader in society 
and another to the follower ; one to the mother and another 
to the daughter. The duties of no two persons are identical, 
but the}' are assigned by One who perfectly knows our 
capacities and opportunities. Their performance is watched 
by One whose eye suffers nothing to escape its notice — 
neither the positive transgression nor the unperformed re- 
quirement. And judgment will be pronounced on all by 
One who has left it on record, " To him that knoweth to do 
good, and docth it not, to him it is sin." Think of these 
things, and in the light of that instant arrest of thought and 
speech and consciousness Friday before last, sec how far 
those of us who profess to obey Christ are obeying his 
command, " Be ye therefore ready also, for in such an hour 
as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.*' We have need to 
do this, for God will not regard vain excuses. Nor will He 



38 



fail to render to every man 110001x11110' to bis deeds ; to them 
who by patient continuance in well-doing, mark the words, 
not spasmodic efforts in times of rivival, but patient con- 
tinuance in icell-doing, to those who thus seek for glory 
and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life ; but 
unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, 
preferring to cavil rather than to serve — to such He will 
render indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon 
every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jews first and also 
of the Gentiles ; of the two, I had rather be an ignorant 
slave in Africa than a barren professor in New England. 

And ye who make 110 profession, look after the fatal 
stroke, at that heaving breast, that unconscious brain, and 
think what had become of him had the work of preparation 
for eternity been put off till then ? And is your preparation 
all made ? If not what security have you that your death 
will not be as sudden , that your sick bed will not be equally 
incapable of thought and feeling. God is not shut up to 
one method of arresting mental activity. And have you 
any claim, that Abraham Lincoln had not, to a continuance 
of consciousness even to the last? 

Finally, my hearers, this event is eminently fitted to 
correct some popular errors concerning death. One of these 
errors is, to search the death-bed for evidences of piety 
rather than the life. But where does the Bible sanction 
such a course ? Does it describe the death-bed of Paul, or 
the beloved disciple ? Does it record the dying experience 
of Moses on the top of Pisgah? or of Joshua, his successor? 
Look at the lamp of David going out amid the senilities of 
second childhood, or at the good Josiah, slain in his chariot 






30 



tit Megiddo. Read the short narrative of the death of ou r 
first father. It is all contained in the brief sentence "and 
he died,'' and not even so much is said of our first mother. 
How long she lived, or when or how or where she died, 
who can tell? Of Samuel it is simply said, "And Samuel 
died," and not even so much is said of Ezra, or Isaiah, or 
any of the prophets. And was that death at Washington an 
exception ? 

Another popular error is an expectation that everything 
pleasant and peaceful will attend the death of the righteous. 
But it is of the wicked that it is written, " There are no 
bands in their death — their strength is firm." And how 
many of the people of God have perished by the hand of 
violence, in foul dungeons, and at fiery slakes, and " others 
were tortured, not accepting deliverance ; they were stoned , 
they were sawn asunder; were tempted: were slain with 
the sword ; they wandered about in sheepskins and goat- 
skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." Go ask the 
noble army of martyrs whether a death even of shame and 
insult be a token of perdition. Then enter many a house 
of luxury, and enquire whether death in tapestried chambers 
and amid all the alleviations of earthly love and wealth, be 
a token of salvation. 

My hearers, even in death man looketh on the outward 
appearance, but God looketh on the heart, and on its prep- 
aration for heaven — not the physical comforts of a dying 
hour. What are all the comforts of the home of Dives, if 
they end in perdition? What arc all the discomforts of the 
death of Lazarus — I do not say death bed, for he may not 
have had one — if all ended in Abraham's bosom? What is 






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a little more pain or a little less, if the eternity that follows 
be with God? My Christian friends, that death-bed in the 
capital bids us drop all anxiety about externals, and fix eye 
and heart on that far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory. Leave all outward things for Christ to order as He 
pleases, but be sure that ye commit your soul into His holy 
keeping, till he presents it holy, unblamable and uurebuk- 
able before the throne, and so rest, singing " The Lord is 
my Shepherd, I shall not want." "Even in the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. 
Thy presence is all, all else is nothing." 

And you who do not call yourselves disciples — you who 
do not look to Jesus as your Saviour— think what would all 
his well-earned fame, what would all £his affection, this uni- 
versal mourning avail for our beloved President, if he were 
not washed from his sins in the blood of Jesus ? And will 
you live longer without coming to Him, that you too may 
have this life? Come to Him, and He will give you grace 
to live, grace to die, and then share with you His home and 
His throne in glory. Few will ever become Presidents of 
these United States ; very few will ever be mourned for as 
Abraham Lincoln is mourned to-day. But "as many as 
receive Christ unto them does He give power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name," yea, 
He makes every one of them kings and priests unto God, 
and they shall reign with Him forever. Shall we not accept 
this grace, so that, finding us ready to open unto Him 
immediately, He shall welcome us into the kingdom pre- 
pared for us from the foundation of the world ? 






